124596-returning-trial-player-impressions
Content ---- ---- Ah yeah, I'd looked at the vendor a bit but since I'm not in a guild with my Exile I forgot about it. I just like that I can sell junk without having to add a vending machine to my plot. I remember reading about the wardrobe earlier, but I'd forgotten about that too. Guild Wars 2 did something similar so players wouldn't have to keep items in storage forever hoping to use them some day. Definitely a good change! | |} ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Sure there were plenty of people who made it past the attunement with no problems and didn't spend hours wiping on trash in ST normal. As for the attunement, it was the time per character more than the difficulty that did it, and that made the roster boss into a raging monster. As for dungeons, people weren't making excuses (what does that even mean? Were they grounded for not finishing or something?). They were, as you said, unfamiliar with what it took to pass the mechanics, and they didn't like the crappy xp and uber-rng loot that came out of the dungeons when they did make it through. That's why I think the training dungeon is a great idea. | |} ---- I think that's what's hit me the most so far. Not that the game has toned down its difficulty but that it seems much more rewarding for playing in short bursts at a time. As a married man who just finished grad school while working full time I really appreciate that haha. | |} ---- ---- Go back to your #hardcore echo chamber, please. I may have been gone for a while but I've been here long enough to know where any conversation with you goes: it's the player's fault that they couldn't handle the awesomeness that was WildStar at launch. Get it, got it, good, moving on. Fortunately, CS lives in reality here on planet earth, and I am still very impressed by the changes they've made for the better! Looking forward to seeing what they've done with Farside. | |} ---- ---- Lethality is right on some points. The zones themselves have not changed that much at all. New features have been added, such as new shiphands and dungeons on lower levels, as well as the gear changes. But the initial game itself is still the same. And that has nothing to do even with #hardcore. People just look at the game differently now when the hype has been blown over. There is simply no pressure to rush through. Dungeons for example have not changed at all in difficulty. There have been tweaks to some of the fights in regards of number balancing, but all mechanics have been the same for the whole year. What has changed is the requirements for unlocking dungeons, the requirements for attunement and the I think a change was made to the experience gain as well. The new gear and itemization does bring a boost to overall character performance. With the new gear, the overall DPS for example has gone up. This is something I noticed on my alt-slinger. Killing feels just way easier compared to when I level'd my slinger for the first time. And bug fixing, this made a huge change as well of course. Had to wait quite a long time to hand in some quests.... No reason to attack someone on the forums though. | |} ---- ---- I'm not debating that. There have been minor tweaks all over like this. Mobs being moved, thinned, changed, or simply removed from specific spots. A few trickle quests have been added as well here and there for better guidance. These things however are minor. Needed, but minor changes overall. I agree they improved the QoL in certain zones, but the impact of them is minimal to all other changes we have seen (and listed) | |} ---- Ah, but my dear Chua, those "minimal" changes are vitally important to new and inexperienced players. It's those "minimal" changes that will let people experience more of the game in the long run because those oft-bemoaned questing-walls have been largely torn down. While I know the Endgame changes are oh-so-important to you guys, they just aren't that important to me. I'm a quester, an Alt-O-Holic who spends far more time in the low-level zones than I do in the high-end areas - and those tiny things have truly added up to a far more pleasant experience than we had even six months ago, let along the almost-year the game is approaching. | |} ---- Whoa, what's with the hostility? You can't admit that maybe -- just maybe -- players including yourself are approaching the game differently than at launch? And that this approach just might afford a better experience, despite the game being materially the same? | |} ---- ---- Actually, the best part about it is this: Let's say you've wiped a bunch and need to repair in an instance. Because of the tools at your disposal, you can leave one guy in the instance (so it doesn't drop). You can teleport to your house, repair at the vendor (without ever leading the teleport pad), then open the Group Finder, click teleport to instance, and be back. Takes about fifteen seconds counting my load times, and Seeger's got a pretty graphically intensive housing plot. So much better than having to finagle the gate. | |} ---- ---- 1. Get discouraged playing a game. 2. Quit. 3. Come back six months later. 4. ?? 5. PROFIT! | |} ---- Pretty much, it's amazing how much an MMO changes in a year. | |} ---- 1. Start Playing 2. Keep Playing 3. Welcome Tex Back 4. Profit Much easier :P | |} ---- *Looks around excitedly* That's me! That's me! | |} ---- It really hasn't changed that much, I still feel it has much more to do with player psyche. But of the changes that *have* been made (in any game) there's really no way for the developers to be informed about them other than to launch the game and let the player feedback loop begin. That's why I wish players wouldn't judge a game in a week or 30 days. | |} ---- Most of us aren't masochist. ;) | |} ---- ---- +1 to this :) | |} ---- It only takes five seconds on the Wildstar Facebook page to confirm everything in the above post. If it's not perfect at launch and comes complete with an Azerothian-size theme park and every feature in every game in the world (even if those features conflict with each other because you have to please everyone!) then the game is an automatic failure. | |} ---- ---- stop being so entitled! *runs away fast* | |} ---- Darn you Chuaaaaa! *shakes fist, adjusts monocle* | |} ---- *plays Yakety Sax* | |} ---- I agree with the second part of your post a LOT. I disagree with the first part though. Having read a lot of your posts, I think you and I actually come from a similar point of view; however, I think what you miss is that while the changes haven't been big in terms of how much they've changed the game, they've made big changes into how much people are enjoying playing it. Or to say it different, small changes to large effect. It's like the grain of sand in your shoe. It's a super small thing, and fixing it isn't that hard, but it can make life so unpleasant that you don't want to walk. I really, REALLY like where runes are now. It didn't bother me back in the day, but I know it bothered a lot of others. Really, it was a small thing. They threw something out there and it didn't quite hit the right balance in terms of effort reward. So the tweaked it. But that balance being off was the grain in the shoes of a LOT of players. Effort/reward is actually a pretty big "grain of sand" in an MMO. I understand why people left because of it. People who left because of the challenge? Well, they probably don't need to give it another shot. But those who felt like the were doing a lot of work and not getting much reward, those players certainly should give it another try. Carbine has addressed a lot of bits of sand, and it's paying off. The new WS is clean, polished, and better than ever (from a PvE standpoint). Has a lot change? The core hasn't- but the experience for a lot of players has been made a whole lot better. For me, there was never enough irritation with the game to move on. And things that did irritate me, I had faith that Carbine could address. They tried some things and took some risks. With that you got some failures (40 man raids, most of the adventures imo, and a monthly drop schedule), some crazy good successes (combat system, housing, shiphands), and some things that actually weren't bad, but needed to be tweaked (the rune system). That's reasonable to expect from any MMO launch, and they should be lauded for the risks they took. Anyway, I think there are plenty of good reasons for players to return, and I'm seeing players who gave it up come back and really like it this time around. | |} ---- ---- Oh, see ... I did not know that. I've just been not runing while I level like usual. I didn't wanna "waste" my bits on low-level gear. Thank you, Elo! | |} ---- ---- Well the core of the game hasn't changed much which is good cause Wildstars core has always been fantastic. What has changed are all the quality of life improvements. Just forum search "I quit" posts. Have a read through and try to identify why the player quit and has his issue since been fixed? RNG has largely been removed, pvp gear imbalaced fixed, attunement fixed, 40 man DS fixed, itemization fixed. Now the job is getting those players who quit to give it another chance. Hard yes, impossible no | |} ---- Extremely good post | |} ---- The cheaper runes are a few copper i believe so worth it to throw them in your rune slots of your decent gear. | |} ---- I hope more people let you know what they think of the efforts you've put in. I'm sure there are a bunch of things that I'm missing like what Elo'naa brought up. I can rally down to the Protogames Academy, right? I have a good feel for the combat system already, but it would be cool to see what it's all about. | |} ---- Yea there is rally down. You can get a group to any dungeon any time if you're willing to put in a slight bit of effort. Proto academy is like level 10 right? Next time you're in game type /who 10-15 That will bring up a list of everyone in game between 10-15. At time of this writing (11:30am PST) there were 28 players on in that level range and they are probably in the same boat as you. Simply send them a tell asking to join you. You also don't have to invite players in the dungeon level range because of the rally down system. So you could potentially find 4 level 50's to join you. Although because of amps and ability points, having 4 rally downed 50s in your academy group would probably trivialize it. So lets say you built your group, but you can't find a tank. Type /who Stalker. That will bring up a list of up to 50 in game stalkers. Then message every single stalker with this copy/pasted message "Hi there, putting together a group for (insert dungeon or adventure). We in need of a tank. Do you happen to have a tank spec and if so, would you care to join us?" Can't find a stalker tank? Type /who engineer. Can't find a Engineer tank? Type /who warrior. Can't find a Warrior tank? Well then you're kind of screwed. But that would be a super rare occurrence. The /who system gives you the ability to design your groups as you want em. In my groups I would always try to grab a rally downed level 50 tank as it would almost always guarantee a successful dungeon run but would not make it faceroll easy. Lastly, make sure you're using the global LFG channel (/chjoin EntityLFM on dominion side and /chjoin lfg on exile side) to advertise. Follow these steps and you will never be groupless again | |} ---- SlyJeff, Bridger of Worlds! ;) Good post dude. I still believe that the gold is to be found in the players who haven't yet tried WildStar at all, and I hope Carbine pursues them, but I suppose I did undervalue the 'returning' player a bit much! I just wish they were less fickle in the first place, because the bumps really weren't that large and we'd have a bigger, better community now if they hadn't left with quick judgements. | |} ---- Thanks man, I really appreciate it. | |} ---- ---- That's great to know! I've been playing my new character to get the full experience and haven't checked out my lv 50s yet. Glad that wall has been knocked down a bit! | |} ---- Well, get your old guildies to come back. :) Raid content story stuff? That's a thing? Raids aren't really like the dungeons, where you have several logs and datacrons scattered about. Have you tried Omnicore-1? I think that's as much story as you get out of the raids? | |} ---- They're so uninterested it's not worth my time. They're PvP oriented and went straight back to GW2 and such. And yes, I've done Omnicore 1, but there something to be said about facing Ohmna/Avatus and the like that are part of the story that I think the solo/story hungry would enjoy. Ohmna is discussed a lot in logs and datachrons and Avatus.. well you face him everywhere. In Omnicore 1 you don't even really face him, just a robot of his as he's "busy" with the raid group. While I get that Omicore 1 was an attempt to cross that bridge, your super important task wasn't even important enough for Avatus himself to face you. Beyond getting in on a raid team, I'd like to think that some people would enjoy facing Ohmna/Avatus in some capacity. I got a warrior to level 50 in around 5 days and geared him out. He's already got some 2700 AP with some decent gear,and that's playing solo. The gearing process is very nice and very smooth, the accessability to all the content save the raids is very good and very well explained. Same thing with leading to the daily zones and new daily quests, save the small 4 square that offers the daily vet dungeon/shiphand/pvp/adventure. If someone didn't tell me, I wouldn't have known about it. | |} ---- Yea that is in a bad spot for returning players. New toons should see it during the Thayd tour I think. I believe the next drop moves all that stuff into a more visible spot. Raids are a ton of fun, but aside from the fact that you fight Ohmna, you don't learn anything new. | |} ---- Good to hear it's being changed and having the Thayd tour take you there. I've seen some of GA, I got up to Kuralak with a different guild before I left, I know they're a blast. I'm itching to find a guild that I can run with. While I know you don't learn anything new, it's... closure? I'm not sure what to call it, but an end to the story of some sort. You hear about Ohmna, read about her, listen to her data cubes, even hear about her from Drusera. But only if you go in a raid do you meet her and face her. It's almost like never getting to kill Vorion at the end of the story line of Grimvault . You don't learn anything when you do, but it closes a chapter of the story in a final, brutal way. | |} ---- Academy is a great addition, had a tons of fun going trough it with all of my alts. IMHO it has great challenge curve so that even less experienced players can understand how to beat it, and looking at the queue times looks that I'm not only one thinking that. Only thing that maybe is missing is a little bigger emphasis to notify players when to interrupt (and IA explanation) as I got a feeling that fresh players (to MMORPGs) missed explanations in it, depends on group, some had people willing to stop and explain, some, sadly, not. Adventures are a different thing -- in 2 starting ones (Exile/Dominion) Exile felt a lot easier and much more forgiving (maybe I had just dumb luck with the group) while I'm still to find a group to finish Dominion one, not sure where they belong but maybe they can benefit from a little better challenge ramp than it's now. Crafting: (all my characters are around 20ish) -- starting zones may need a little better material density as (IMHO) first tiers should not require to go and hunt for mats for prolonged time, especially when one is starting and still to open whole zone. Also, salvaging concept was clear to me (as long time MMORPG player) but for someone starting out and who wants to craft I think there should be more explanation why they need to salvage items (power cores) instead of just vendoring them (especially coupled with the need for the currency on the starting character). Another thing is that leveling characters has not much stuff to buy on AH (CX mats are mostly too expensive for starting character) and IMHO that may be (partially) a result of the need to go to the main hub to get to AH, having AH/CX near crafting stations and questing hubs will (IMHO) encourage players to sell items more in all level brackets instead waiting for cap to start doing that. | |} ---- Also, you can grab my add on, LFG Board, and it will store LFG chat messages you may have missed while doing other stuff. | |} ---- FYI - I downloaded your LFG board and I think that it's crashing the rest of my addons & Wildstar. I'll keep you posted about it as I'm trying to pinpoint if that's really the cause and what's causing it as it only started to happen when I implemented your LFG. | |} ---- ---- ---- From what I see most of the pvp is at max level. I'm still playing GW2 though so that helps me scratch the pvp itch. People are saying that this next drop will help pvp a lot but honestly I think time will help a lot more. It just needs more people. Edit: also what other people are saying in other threads: transfer to the pve server. That's where everyone is. It'll take no time at all to get to 50. | |} ---- ---- Agreed. I wish their pvp system was more like GW2. I haven't played it since I came back for the free trial, but pvp in this game was a lot of fun for me with the combat system. I'd encourage you to get a character to 50 and then give it a shot. | |} ---- ---- Have you SEEN warplots? Because I don't think 95% of the people who've played Wildstar ever have seen it, hardcore or casual. | |} ---- Nope..but they have warplot maps ready so just turn them around and make them a BG:) OR make them easilty puggable or something! | |} ---- I haven't. My guild built one before it disintegrated back in the day but we were defeated by the roster boss before we could use it. Warplots should have had a full mercenary option to start with, not just the 40vs40 option. | |} ---- I've been here two years and I have yet to see a Warplot. :( And honestly, that's all I wanted to do here. | |} ---- I love how their slogan for hyping warplots has become a meme of it's own. How I remember the jokes in chat/TS anytime someone brought up warplots.... "I mean.... Have you SEEN warplots?" Hehehehe. And yea Tex, my guild was a WvW guild from GW2 and we were super excited over Warplots and it disappointed us immensely that it never really got off the ground (more like buried it's own grave). | |} ---- Sadly, they were the "40 Man Raid" of PVP and met the same ignominious end. Warplots should have been an Endgame Battleground from the outset. Honestly, if I was the Dev who spent my life creating that content, I'd be seriously ticked off. | |} ---- Content you took time and energy to create for hours and hours and poured sweat, tears and monster energy drink into that no one ever sees... I'd be more than seriously ticked off. | |} ---- ---- Me and 95% of the population ;) | |} ---- They weren't designed to work like that... it was not just fighting another team, it was about progression and persistence. And worse, then it would be just like every other closed, instanced map. Warplots were a great idea but I think was an over-estimation in the amount of PvP players looking to organize like that. I applaud Carbine for taking that risk though... as we all should be. | |} ---- Then you weren't trying :) | |} ---- Well, I know you were here through early beta (which counts for the two years) so there were plenty of playlists to at least have seen and played through the Warplots! I actually think the Warplots concept would be excellent as almost a standalone game... some re-thinking of progression and stuff, but for a game mode it was pretty cool. | |} ---- Been asking for this for a while. It's really frustrating to have to wait until level cap to enjoy PvP. | |} ---- For once... I agree with Lethality (I feel dirty). There HAVE been warplot matches that were organized by guilds and such, just nothing en mass. | |} ---- ---- Yeah my gaming community had high hopes, got the warplot, held meetings to determine layout, times, strategy, etc. Then the population bomb hit. Now the Guild isn't even on our portal anymore haha. | |} ---- ---- ---- One of my favorite things to do in that zone is to ride my hoverboard up a ramp and go soaring through the air towards a faraway enemy, then enter combat with them right before I land. I feel like a total badass swooping down to rain destruction on a poor unsuspecting hookfoot! | |} ---- then you arent queuing, all fridays and saturdays are warplots night in the primetime, i have seen a lot of warplots since the pvp guilds made the warplots nights a thing. For the moment they are just exile vs exile, and one time saw a dommie group but been in a lot lately because of that | |} ---- I did, but still I want redo the leveling to see the changes :) | |} ---- Me too haha. I figure if the leveling sucks then there isn't much hope in the long run. What I've seen so far is that it's way better! | |} ---- I feel the same, I just ... miss some PvP Battles with my character, xD | |} ---- I am almost to level 40, after having started over when I resubbed. Dudes ... even Wilderun doesn't suck, and from me, that is high praise for the zone dubbed "Subscription Killer" ... | |} ---- For me, Malgrave/Grimvault where the bad ones. I loved Wilderrun. | |} ---- I love the music in Wilderrun... but last time I played it I felt like I was committing genocide on those poor animals I killed so many. Gonna give it a whirl this evening while the wife is out at a friend's bday party, you've made me hopeful that those maniacal requirements have been toned down a bit. | |} ---- Yeah, I think the Big Game Hunter quests are like ... six or seven mobs instead of the five dozen million we used to have to kill. Even fewer if you're macho enough to tackle some Primes. Which I am. Because I'm macho like that. And the big-ass sword helps. | |} ---- Primals as an engineer is a big no no >.< | |} ---- Excellent. Normal Moo also has a big ass sword. Should be fun! | |} ---- ---- ----